#2049: Ferret Warlord's GB Metroid 2 - Return of Samus "any%, glitched" in 23:40.92 - Submission #2049

There's a hole in the sky
Through which things can fly.
-Aperture Science Motto

After parsing through the user's manual for her Power Suit, Samus discovered that the Chozo have endowed it with the power to interact with the fabric of reality immediately surrounding the planet SR-388 by simply switching between her beam and her missiles. What luck that she should receive an assignment to go to that planet!

Eager to try out this new power, she realizes a few things: it's tricky and seemingly random to pull off, plus, if she's not careful, she could easily end up in a solid wall, stuck there until someone hits the power switch on her universe. Eventually, with the aid of various other tools, including time manipulators, she attained a mastery over this latent ability and used it to eradicate the metroid species in record time.

The select glitch in this game is a well known glitch that involves mashing the select button to move tiles around the game map. Doing so can give the player access to other parts of the map s/he shouldn't have have access to, including this game's version of "secret worlds." I could easily go into further detail, but I have the mechanics of this glitch detailed at Metroid 2 Tricks.

This was a rather fun run to make. One of the first things I did when rerecording tools came out for the Gameboy was to test this game out, and figure out how to get the glitch to work. I am very grateful to whoever decided to include a map viewer in VBA, because this glitch would otherwise have been impossible to pull off consistently and helped very much in my research of it.

After my two year break from normal life, I found a map editor which allowed me to confirm some theories I had about how the game map worked, and made route planning much, much easier.

What was my least favorite part about making this run? Easily, the last metroid in ruins 3 and the metroid immediately following. Trying to do a bunch of damage boosting while doing some tricky glitching was in no way fun. Those two easily took me a month to do.

Notes About the Run

Watching this movie may induce feelings of confusion and disorientation. Do not worry; this is perfectly normal.
Much of the route was discovered by accident. I was simply going through the game, using the glitch wherever I could, and just stumbled upon bits of the route that fit together pretty much perfectly.
There's a part of this movie where I spend ten seconds filling up on missiles on the same enemy. This is unavoidable as I need the missiles I get from him, and that enemy is the only chance I have to refill at the point.
In Cardboard's run, health is tight while missiles are plentiful. A side effect of this route is exactly the opposite, where I can be very liberal with my health, but have to be very conservative with my missiles.
The results of the Metroid Queen fight are frustrating. I discovered that her first lunge in each set of two will never be with an open mouth until her health is less than 100. This means that for the first two rounds I could only bomb her once.
The end result of the run is a ratio of nearly two metroids per minute.
The only two types of metroids I do not encounter at least one glitched version of are the gamma and the queen. Every other kind, including the regulars, get glitched up at least once.
Brownie points to whoever can tell me what's truly bizarre about the way I get to the credits. No, it's not the direction I approach the ship, nor is it the way I enter it. :) (Edit: CtrlAltDestroy got it)
Takes damage to save time
Manipulates luck
Abuses errors in programming
Uses VBA 19.3

Ending Time According to the Game

Thanks

Cardboard, for his run which served as a good reference point and inspiration for tactics. While I didn't seek to copy his run and tactics exactly, watching it was good for motivation and pushing me in the right direction.
The developers of VBA, particularly the person who decided to include the map viewer. This run would probably not exist without it.
Texel, for the really handy M2Edit program, which was a great assistance in route planning.
Everyone who posted in the Metroid 2 Topic, for providing support and for giving me an expanded base of knowledge of various tricks and what not.
Everyone on the IRC, who tolerated my use of the channel as a place to think out loud, and also for additional support and motivation.

Thanks for watching!

Screenshots